


Summer's Honey Breath

by voleuse



Category: Battlestar Galactica
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-27
Updated: 2008-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea</em>?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer's Honey Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Set before 3.09, no spoilers. Title and summary adapted from William Shakespeare's _Sonnet 65_.

Kara was a ghost in the corridors of the _Galactica_, a flash of a grin and her hair, unfamiliar, swinging over her shoulder.

After a year and more of echoing emptiness, the ship's corridors are filled to bursting again, but he never manages to miss a glimpse of her, even when he wants to.

He never managed to tell her he was glad to see her alive, because the one time she looked him straight in the eye, he wasn't sure she was.

*

 

In the middle of the night, he met her in the gym. She was pounding into a heavy bag, each grunt edging into a scream.

"You okay, Starbuck?" he asked, knowing better after the words slipped out.

Her body spun, and she slammed her heel into the bag. She looked at him, and her eyes were all contempt.

Lee dipped his chin and took the reproach. "Obviously not," he said.

"Always the smart one," she replied, her voice dipped in ice.

He raised his hand, palm up. "Not always."

She swayed on her feet, then retreated.

*

 

He found her standing on the catwalk over the hangar bay. She clenched her hands around the railing, and she was biting her lip.

"Any time you're ready," he told her, and readied himself for a blow.

Her smile was worse. "I gave that all up, remember? Grounded myself for a civilian."

"And yet here you are." He set his hands on his hips, stayed his initial impulse. "We could use your help, Kara."

"I don't think that's true." She looked past him, looked around him.

Lee waited until she'd looked everywhere else, and finally settled on him. "Eventually, you won't have a choice anymore."

Her throat rippled as she swallowed, and she backed away from him with panic in her eyes.

He watched her until she disappeared, and regretted every moment he didn't follow.


End file.
